TOPIC: Simple method to add 1000 new hotspots.

I need to add around a thousand locations to a map.
I have the locations stored in an .xls file and a .gpx file but won't have a problem converting them to a .csv or whatever may be required.
The locations consist of a location name and the gps location and nothing more.
I'm looking for a simple way of using this data to create these locations on the hotspots map.
After the new locations are created they will need to have a marker icon assigned to them but until I have looked at them I don't know what it will be.
I've had a look at SobiPro but this is a once off action and I don't really want to spend hours learning the intricacies of the Sobipro software.
Is there a simple method of editing a PHP file or some such thing to achieve this?

Currently there is no import method in hotspots, but you could use this trick here to import your CSV directly through the database:
compojoom.com/forum/138-tricks/16485-imp...ough-phpmyad-v-2-0-5

Daniel

Thank you Daniel
Figured it out just prior to you posting the link to the reference and have achieved the same result in a slightly different way.
Only problem I am having is that the new markers aren't activated (don't show on the map) until I go into the backend, open an individual marker and 'save' it. Then the address fields are filled in automatically and the hotspot shows on the map.
The Geocode element doesn't work. Yes, I am trying to geocode less than 100 markers but an error message reports -"something went wrong trying to coordinate the markers in the database."
Any help? Turns out I have more than 1000 markers to upload, possibly 7000.
At this stage I've had to open and save 1000 markers by hand = zero fun.

Go in the database and set the access field to 1 -> this should show the hotspots on the map.
I'll have a look at the geocode feature right away!

Daniel

Please try the latest dev release (that I just released). It should fix the geocode problem.
Regards,
Daniel

Access field fixed the display problem, thanks.

Reluctant to try the dev release. Site is live.

Can you (or anyone) tell me where I can edit the words 'New Hotspot' in the 'Add a new Hotspot' form on the front end. Have spent hours looking for it (including with Chrome Developer Tool) - to no avail.

Two further questions. Is it possible to retain the 'Search' function in the header of the map but disable the sliding menu on the right?
How can I add temporary text or a heading to the editor in the front end to direct users to fill in the description field?

all language strings should be in the lang file. (language/en-GB/en-GB.com_hotspots.ini)

well, you can hide the menu, but what happens when there is nothing in the current view when the users searches? He will be confused and won't know that there are locations if he zoomes out.

add this to your css if you really want to hide the menu:

The .ini file is the file I expected it to be in. Either I am blind (possible) and the Command+F function is failing (unlikely) or the words 'New Hotspot' are being called from somewhere else that I cannot find.

I see your point about a user not being able locate his markers after he has searched and I guess I was approaching the problem from a user who is searching on a map that has not had any location activitated.
As it stands, when the map is first displayed - no markers are displayed. The user must select a marker category to display locations of that type.
This is not ideal for me. I would prefer to display all markers when the page loads.

Personally I like the idea of the slide menu, but found it a bit glitchy in use.
I reduced the width from 260px (from memory) to 180px. My map is 780px wide and I found the standard width of the slide menu was too intrusive on the map.
I added // to a couple of the JS functions (as per instructions I found here) in order to have the menu only open when it was clicked on.
I found that when you close the slide menu it re-opened by itself every time the map was zoomed.
I have included a screenshot of the slide menu in two different circumstances.
The first image shows the menu working correctly after it has been opened by clicking on the arrow.
The second image is what appears if I enter a location in the search box. The menu appears to be 180px wide but it is appearing in a 260px wide container.

I looked at your dev release and considered trying it but I could see no files there anyway. I guess I can risk trying it (if you need a guinea pig) because I only run Joomla for the single page your map appears on.
As it is at the moment I have 900 locations without addresses because of the geocode feature.

Update:
Returned the width of the slide menu to 260px. Changing the width in the CSS alone affects to many other operations of the slide menu, directions can't be read for instance.

Problems I still want to solve:

Problem 1 - the geocode feature.

Problem 2 - finding the file that contains 'New Hotspot' in the add a hotspot form.

Problem 3 - displaying all markers in all categories all at once.

Problem 4 - making the slide menu stable. I want it to open and close only when clicked on or when directions are selected from the marker callout.

(Interestingly I discovered that if I comment out the hs-links and hs-readmore from the menu.js file, the slide menu disappears but the search box remains. Typing in a location displays only those markers relevant to the search term without the slide menu appearing. Only problem is that calling on the directions link from the marker callout reveals an empty slide menu but - could be a useful idiosyncrasy for someone.)

1. Geocode feature has been fixed in the dev. release ( you can install it -> it version 3.3 + a bugfix for the geocode - no experimental code there...)
2. the string is in administrator/language/...

3. In the hotspots menu you can select all the start categories. Also read the documentation and especially the section about "Scaling for large databases"

4. What about having the menu collapsed at all times till the user clicks on it (I've shared code on the forum for this)

Regards,
Daniel

1. Screenshot of installed version.



2. Screenshot of Geocode error message.



3. Screenshot of the Dashboard. There is nothing else on the page. Is this the reason I cannot locate the option to select the markers that are displayed on the map by default?



Quote from my query in Hotspots Newbie forum - #20367: From the very first time I have tried to open the component only the Locations(Hotspots), KML, Hotspots and Categories are shown. It is four lines of styled text with an image for each tab - there are no visual tabs or page structure at all. Nothing else appears on the page.

4. Screenshot of code for a styled map from the Google Map Styling Wizard. No styles are applied once this code is inserted and saved.



5. Screenshots of the slide menu in action.

I'm away for the weekend. We'll fix/look again at everything on monday!
Have a nice weekend!
Daniel

Away for the weekend - lucky.
I'd needed to sort this map out this weekend.
I've been asking about having only half a dashboard for over a week.
Support???

1 + 2. have you selected the hotspots that you want to geocode? First select them, after that click on the geocode button. Also here is how it looks for me:
awesomescreenshot.com/0fe17u8p01

here is the link to the latest dev-release that this screenshot + geocode was tested against and it works:
compojoom.com/component/ars/repository/dev-hotspots/git33c40f3

3. this is how it looks for me awesomescreenshot.com/0a217ub522 -> anything else is wrong.

4. How have you generated this style? It is wrong. This is how the json code normally looks:
This code there is escaped \\\\\ and that is the reason why it doesn't work. Go here:
gmaps-samples-v3.googlecode.com/svn/trun...ps/wizard/index.html
create your style and copy the json code from there.

5. Ok, this is annoying. I'll try to fix it for the next release.

Regards,
Daniel

P.S. If you cannot get the backend of hotspots to work properly can I have a look there? You can send me a mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Thanks for giving me access to the site.

The problem with the dashboard is somehow related to your hosting. The tiles folder in media was not existing and it couldn't create it on the fly... Now I've fixed that and the dashboard is loading.

I tested the geocoder and I got the message: "Hotspots updated: 20" -> so it was working for the 20 hotspots that I tested it with.

The styled maps problem -> your php is not configured properly. You have magic quotes turned on and it should be off for joomla 3. Also magic quotes is deprecated:
php.net/manual/en/security.magicquotes.php Ask your hosting provider to turn them off (or maybe you can turn them off yourself in cpanel - not 100% sure) and after that enter the json in the textarea and it should be properly saved.

Also a thing that I saw -> normally your first link to hotsptos in the menu should be to the main map and not to the "create hotspots view". If that is not the case you can get problems with the links to single view for a hotspot.

Regards,
Daniel

Thanks for having a poke around.

I have rearranged the menu hierarchy so the main map is first. Doesn't seem to make any difference but if that is the correct way to do it then that is fine.

I'm not sure how you got the geocoder to work. I select 1, 5, 10 or however many hotspots and hit the geocode button and still get the: "We are sorry, but we were unable to find the coordinates of the given hotspots" message.

Good news on the map styles. Nice find.
Adding php_flag magic_quotes_gpc Off to the .htaccess file in Cpanel resolves the problem with commenting out the styles.

I still cannot work out how to display all the marker categories by default when first loading the map.

All you had to do to show all hotspots at once is select all the categories that you want to be shown in the menu. (hold down ctrl key and select what you want - I did it for you now).

I just realised what the problem with the geocode is. What you need is reverse geocoding -> adding the address out of the coordinates.

The geocode function tries to find the coordinates from the street, city and country name.

If you use the geocode function on locations that don't have a street, city or country it won't work.

I'm sorry, I didn't understand you properly. Right now the only way to get the address will be to open each hotspots and edit it.

Daniel

Thanks.

Okay if that's what the geocode does then I'll have to live with it. Only 900 to do. You could off done a couple of hundred while you were in there.

I saw that all categories had been selected. I have tried it before but with no success. There are still no markers loading with the map.

To make sure we understand each other - I want all markers in all categories to be displayed when the map loads.

Cheers

Read this chapter:
compojoom.com/support/documentation/hotspots/ch05#idp101776

Also I just updated hotspots and added a reverse geocoding to it.
compojoom.com/component/ars/repository/dev-hotspots

Try the latest release.

A note on the reverse geocoder:
It is not accurate! The google geocoder returns an array with possible addresses where the first element in the array is the closest match. So for the geocoder I always get the first result and try to read out the street, zip, town and country.
It is also possible that the geocoder will return just a part of the address (country for example and nothing else).
Try it. I hope that it will save you some time.

Regards,
Daniel

Yes, I have read that chapter many times. Is there something I am not understanding. I have less than 2000 markers at present. I have custom tiles set to 'Yes'. I have the marker amount set to 20. In the menu options I have selected all categories. No markers are being displayed on the map when it loads. A user must manually select a marker(category) to display it. If a user selects 'show all markers' in the slide menu and selects all categories then all the markers appear.
What do I have to do to display all the markers when the map loads?

The geocoder. And I appreciate your effort.
I had version com_hotspots-git_33c40f3 installed.
I can see no files in the link - compojoom.com/component/ars/repository/dev-hotspots .
I have now installed - com_hotspots-3.3.1.
I can see no difference.